The four-year degree course is going to be launched in the state 2023-2024
Date : 31.05.2023

• Under the National Education Policy 2020, there is a proposal to introduce a four-year honors course. Will the four-year honors course be launched in West Bengal this time?
• West Bengal on May 31 finally announced that colleges run and aided by the State Government would implement the National Education Policy starting from academic year 2023-2024, a decision that has drawn mixed reaction from teachers.
While one set of teachers questioned the delay in the announcement, the other said it was better late than never. But, what appears to trouble most is the State Government’s simultaneous announcement that admissions would not be centralised — as was the plan from this year — and that colleges would be responsible for it individually.
• “After consulting various stakeholders and keeping the future of students in mind, it has been decided by the competent authority in the State Government that the four-year undergraduate level programme will be introduced in all State Government and State Government-aided/ sponsored higher education institutions from the academic session 2023-2024,” a State Government release said.
• “They shall be awarded degrees in accordance with the UGC National Curriculum and Credit Framework [NCCF] for UG-level programmes. This year, the admission process in UG-level courses will be conducted through standalone online admission portals at the institutional level, as was done during the last academic session,” it said.
• It said the NCCF for the four-year UG courses would be implemented by the institutions through optimum utilisation of existing resources or self-mobilisation of additional resources, pending receipt of additional financial assistance.
• “Colleges and university teachers are not prepared. There is not much time to even prepare the syllabus. Only one month back, the State Government had just asked for opinions, and now after Class 12 results, they are asking us to introduce NEP. It’s a whimsical move. All the burden and responsibilities will come onto the teachers. At the end of the day, teachers are unanswerable to the greater community and the students. The State Government should have decided much earlier to introduce NEP,” said Mrinmoy Pramanick, a teacher in a university in Kolkata.

uncertainty prevails as students clueless about admission process, NEP

• It’s been almost a week since Class 12 results were declared but the admission process is yet to kickstart in most of West Bengal’s colleges

• Uncertainty prevails at the moment in the field of higher education in West Bengal with most universities functioning without a fulltime Vice-Chancellor, and State-run colleges still unsure about the admission procedure and whether they will follow the National Education Policy (NEP).
• It’s been almost a week since Class 12 results were declared but the admission process is yet to kickstart in most of West Bengal’s colleges. Among the universities run by the State Government, several are now without a V-C and many others would soon be without one because they have been functioning under acting V-Cs whose terms have either ended or soon come to an end.
• This uncertainty hangs at a time when higher education in Bengal is about to witness a transition. This academic year, for the first time, the State Government plans to use a centralised web-based online admission system for admission at undergraduate level in all colleges/universities run by it. But so far there is no announcement regarding when the process will begin. Institutions, at the moment, are busy implementing an order issued last Friday for reserving 10% seats for the EWS, or economically weaker section.
• Also this academic year, the institutions in the State were to adopt the NEP, but while several prestigious private universities, such as St. Xavier’s, have made it known that they are going with the NEP, the State Government has not made an announcement regarding this yet.
• “We shall follow whatever we are instructed to. The centralised admission appears to be on, but I can’t say anything about NEP, even though the Education Minister says it will happen. More than colleges, it is the students and parents who are concerned. They need some assurance,” said the principal of a Kolkata college, asking not to be named.

NOTIFICATION

• Whereas Government/Government-aided colleges and State-aided Universities under administrative control of the Higher Education Department have been taking admission of students in the undergraduate courses, through an online admission system, and
• Whereas it has been observed that since the implementation of an online admission system at the college level, the students desiring admission in undergraduate courses, have to apply in various colleges and Universities by registering on the online portals of different colleges and Universities and paying separate application fees for each college or University, as the case may be, and
• Whereas it has been observed that in such system, a student has to take an admission in a particular college within a certain period of time despite the admission process in other colleges is on. As a result, the student concerned requires to take multiple admission by paying multiple admission fees, and
• Whereas it is also observed that due to different dates of admission in various colleges/Universities, the admissible seats in colleges/Universities remain vacant while at the same time the students who have taken multiple admission, face trouble in getting refund of admission fees from the college/Universities, after he/she vacates the seat and/or cancels the admission, and
• Whereas considering all the above and also considering the need of uniformity, transparency in the admission system in all colleges/ Universities under the administrative control of the Higher Education Department, Government of West Bengal with an aim to provide opportunities to the students, to choose their desired course in the desired colleges via a single window platform and also to stop multiple admission by a single student in various colleges/Universities so that maximum number of seats can be filled up in all colleges/Universities in every academic year, the State Government has been considering for some time the need of designing a single web based online portal to conduct centralized admission process for taking an admission in UG level courses in all colleges/Universities under the administrative control of the Higher Education Department.

Higher Education Department from the academic session 2023-2024

• Therefore, the competent authority in the State Government has decided to use a Centralized web based online admission system for admission at Undergraduate level in all colleges/Universities under the administrative control of the Higher Education Department from the academic session 2023-2024 on the following terms and conditions :–
  → The portal shall be maintained and operated by the West Bengal State Council of Higher Education.
  → There shall be a dedicated Bank account of the Council, to deposit the application fees/admission fees.
  → The Council shall transfer the admission fees to respective colleges/Universities within one month from the date of completion of admission process.
  → All expenses for maintaining the admission portal shall be undertaken by the Council.
  → The State Government in the Higher Education Department may at its discretion keep any course or college/ Universities out of the purview of this Centralized admission portal.
  → Autonomous Colleges, Minority Educational Institutes/Colleges, Training Colleges, Law Colleges, Colleges/ Universities offering course like Fine Arts and Performing Arts, Crafts, Dance, Music, Colleges offering Engineering, Pharmacy, Nursing, Medical Courses and Self-financing/Private Colleges for the present and such other colleges/Universities/courses as may be determined and notified by the State Government from time to time, shall be out of the purview of the centralized admission system.
  → The State Government will issue an appropriate direction or advisory from time to time as may be required for proper implementation of the centralized online admission system.

Official Notification - DIRECT LINK

• Download Official Notification.